Works
His complex and well-structured works, in the German Romantic musical tradition, placed him in the camp of Romantic classicism exemplified by Johannes Brahms, rather than the opposing "New Music" of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. In his time, he was known primarily as a choral composer.
His Violin Concerto No. 1, in G minor, Op. 26 (1866) is one of the most popular Romantic violin concertos. It uses several techniques from Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor. These include the linking of movements, as well as omitting the Classical opening orchestral exposition and other conservative formal structural devices of earlier concertos. Passionate, sensuous melody takes precedence over structure, to such an extent that many critics regard such writing as the quintessence of Romanticism.
The two other works of Bruch which are still widely played were also written for solo string instrument with orchestra: (1) the Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra, which includes an arrangement of the tune "Hey Tuttie Tatie", best known for its use in the song Scots Wha Hae by Robert Burns, and (2) the Kol Nidrei, Op. 47, for cello and orchestra (subtitled "Adagio on Hebrew Melodies for Violoncello and Orchestra"), which starts and ends with the solo cello's setting of the Kol Nidre ("All Vows ... ") incantation which begins the Jewish Yom Kippur service. This work may well have inspired Ernest Bloch's Schelomo (subtitled "Hebrew Rhapsody") of 1916, an even more passionate, even more extended one-movement composition, also on a Jewish subject and also for solo cello and orchestra.
The success of Kol Nidrei has made many assume that Bruch himself was of Jewish ancestry—indeed, as long as the National Socialist Party was in power (1933-1945) his music was banned because he was considered a possible Jew for having written music with an openly Jewish theme. As a result of this, his music was completely forgotten in German-speaking countries, but there is no known evidence that Bruch was of Jewish origin. As far as can be ascertained, none of his ancestors were Jews, and Bruch himself was given the middle name Christian and was raised Rhenish-Catholic.
In the realm of chamber music, Bruch is not well known. In favour of his remembrance are the eight pieces for clarinet, viola and piano that did keep some repertoire due to its rare combination of instruments. Like Brahms wrote his compositions for clarinet with a clarinetist in mind, so did Bruch write these trio's for his son Max. These pieces do not stand alone in Bruchs output: in his students time and before he wrote many a piece in the chamber music genre, of which a septet is noteworthy. His first major pieces are two string quartets at the beginning of his career that remind in tone and intensity of the Schumann quartets. Intriguing is the composing of his (second) piano quintet, which he began while serving as conductor in Liverpool for the music society of that city. While written for amateurs, its a fair composition and today we have to thank the nudging they send in Bruchs direction after leaving Liverpool to finish the last movement. At the end of his life in 1918, he once more set out for smaller ensembles with the composition of two string quintets, of which one served as basis for a string octet, written for 4 violins, two viola's a cello and a double bass in 1920. This octet fits very well in this roaring time where composers as Schönberg and Stravinsky were part of the modern age and looking forward, while Bruch and others tried to compose within the Romantic era and thereby glorified a form of Late Romanticism.
Other works include two other concerti for violin and orchestra, No. 2 in D minor and No. 3 in D minor (which Bruch himself regarded as at least as fine as the famous first); and a Concerto for Clarinet, Viola and Orchestra, and many more pieces for violin, viola or cello and orchestra. His three symphonies, while devoid of originality in form or structure, still contain distinctive German Romantic melodic writing effectively orchestrated. To this triple output he added three orchestral suites in later life, of which the third has a remarkable history: The origin can be found in Capri, where Bruch was witness of a procession, where a tuba played a tune that "could very well be the basis of a funeral march"*, and would be the basis of this suite, finished in 1909; but not quite, for the Sutro sisters had asked Bruch for a concerto in their behalf, which he granted in arranging this suite into a double piano concerto only to be played within the america's and not beyond! This Concerto in A-flat minor for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 88a, was finished in 1912 for the American duo-pianists Rose and Ottilie Sutro, which they never played in the original version; they performed the work only twice, in two different versions of their own. The score was withdrawn in 1917 and rediscovered only after Ottilie Sutro's death in 1970. The Sutro sisters also played a major part in the fate of the manuscript of the Violin Concerto No. 1: Bruch sent it to them to be sold in the United States, but they kept it and sold it for profit themselves.
Violinists Joseph Joachim and Willy Hess advised Bruch on his writing for that instrument, and Hess premiered some of his works including the Concert Piece for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 84, which was composed for him.
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